We are currently letting an abundance of crises go to waste in this country and missing the opportunity to address longstanding social and economic ills. We face crises in homelessness, health care, opioid and fentanyl addictions and overdoses, immigration, mass shootings, mental health, climate, and, at any given time, various aspects of our economy. To name just a few.

Before I retired from a career in communications and public relations, I spent nearly two decades studying crises and helping to resolve them. There are varied approaches to crisis management, but in its simplest form, if faced with a crisis; you admit there’s a problem, analyze it, figure out how to fix it, tell people what you’re going to do to fix it, and then, well, fix it. And do it as fast as possible.

But there’s a stage in the process that, although it doesn’t appear in any list of best practices, shows up anyway. I call it the "hand-waving phase.” This is when conversations collapse into a cacophony of bureaucratic back and forths, and progress grinds to a halt. Hands around the room start shifting blame, waving off responsibility, dismissing the fact there is a problem (usually the wave of the person or area whose fault it is), and hands fly across keyboards in a race to develop the magic message point that will make it all go away.

Fortunately, this stage doesn't last very long. Unfortunately for this country, we seem stuck there, waving our collective hands at the overabundance of problems.

As more people set up homes in alleys and doorways, while temperatures rise and the costs of medical care continue to climb, and as migrants stream across the border and bullets spray around the rooms, the hands keep waving faster and faster. 

Why are we mired here and unable to break free?

In my experience, the hand waving ends when someone takes charge. They may not fully understand the problem, have an idea how to solve it, or know the right words to say, but they dare to step forward. They're leaders.

And this is where our crises response falls apart. Because, as a country, we’re suffering from a broader crisis that connects all the ills we face.

A crisis in leadership.

 There are several people and groups, both government and private, who individually and together can help resolve our crises, but their actions have collapsed into denial, blame-shifting, defensive posturing, and hollow messages. No one is stepping up to take charge. They don’t need to have all the answers, take blame or responsibility, or carry the burden alone. They just need to lead.

The petty, political gamesmanship of our government representatives impedes progress on any issue. We can't expect them to lead us when they struggle to lead themselves. Corporations deny any responsibility for society’s ills and hide behind walls of excuses built by lawyers and accountants, and attempt to salve their collective conscience with donations and sponsorships. Spiritual leaders have all but vanished, and our educational institutions are tied up in the ivy knots of their own struggles to remain relevant.

Martin Luther King, Jr., a man who did not shy away from leadership, said, "The ultimate measure of a man is not where he stands in moments of comfort and convenience, but where he stands at times of challenge and controversy.” The people and organizations who can lead us through our crises are standing on the sidelines, waving their hands.

Rahm’s boss in 2008, President Obama, recently told a group of young people the challenges we face will require a new generation of heroes. How much longer can we wait for someone to lead us? There’s a reason why you address a crisis fast. Because the longer you take to resolve it, the bigger it becomes, and the more likely it is to cause irreparable and irreversible harm.

At least we might keep the temperature down with all the hand-waving.